Rachmaninoff, Sergey

Preface

Sergey Rachmaninoff – String Quartet No. 2 (1896)

(b. April 1 / O.S. March 20, 1873, Oneg, Russia – d. March 28, 1943, Beverly Hills, U.S.A.)

 

First performance: October 1945, Moscow, Beethoven Quartet

Preface

Although very little known, Sergey Rachmaninoff has had two attempts in writing a string quartet in his early years – the first string quartet in 1889, when he was 16 years old and much under the influence of Tchaikovsky, and later on the second string quartet in 1896. But both of them were left unfinished, with only two movements each, and there is no evidence of them ever being played in their quartet version during Rachmaninoff’s lifetime.

An orchestral version was to make it first to the concert stage. The String Quartet No. 1 was premiered in 1891, as an arrangement that Rachmaninoff made for a student orchestra (possibly for string orchestra). The timing of this work’s premiere plans has terribly annoyed the composer. He was supposed to perform this version at the Moscow Conservatory at the end of 1890, but the concert was canceled after a few rehearsals which stood in the way of Rachmaninoff’s trip to St. Petersburg, to hear Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades premiere. In a letter from December 10, 1890, Rachmaninoff writes: „My great wish was to go to Petersburg for The Queen of Spades… my own work has done me an ill turn – it’s to be performed at the Conservatory, conducted not by me, but by Safonov. Can’t understand why they need me here. If I had known that for the sake of this piece I’d loose my holiday, I certainly would not have composed it. This composition isn’t worth even one general’s daughter.”

As for the String Quartet No. 2, there is one historical account in Taneyev’s diary which puts a clearer vision in the muddled chronology of this piece, about which some sources suggest as being written or revised later in 1910-13. In an entry in March 1896, Taneyev – Rachmaninoff’s friend and one of his beloved teachers, writes: „Friday [22], in the evening, Rachmaninoff came. He is writing a quartet. We talked of quartet style and in particular of the C major quartet of Mozart.” The two movements that Rachmaninoff wrote for this quartet, Allegro moderato in G minor and Andante molto sostenuto in C minor, were left incomplete, only in a sketch form which was brought to completion in 1947, with the work of Professors Boris Dobrokhotov (1907-87) and Georgi Kirkor (1910-80) from the Moscow Conservatory. With their contribution, the editio princeps appeared in 1947, at the Soviet State Publishing House Muzgiz.

But the first performance of both incomplete string quartets took place in their original form posthumously in 1945, in Moscow, with the Beethoven Quartet. A more famous performance of the two unfinished works followed a few years later with the Budapest Quartet, at Coolidge Auditorium of The Librabry of Congress in Washington D.C. on April 4, 1952, with an all-Rachmaninoff programm. It is also through this performance that the works, even though with little popularity, have gained a foothold on the concert stage.

But the most intruiguing aspect of this second string quartet, is the extraordinary beauty of the second movement. Following the sonata-form of the Allegro moderato, the Andante molto sostenuto is a remarkably sepulchral piece, written as an extensive passacaglia of more than 10 minutes in length and stemming from a simple minor-scale opening motif. This movement is so well articulated that it has the power to stand by its own as a concert piece and will be a great contribution to the string orchestra repertoire.

Alice Tacu, 2015

 

 

 

Deutsches Vorwort > HERE